Nasa captures Mercury's entire surface for the first time

A Nasa spacecraft that has been orbiting Mercury for two years, has used hi
res cameras to image the entire surface of the planet for the first time.

The footage of Mercury is a composite of thousands of images sent by the Mercury, Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging (Messenger) spacecraft.

The different colours show the craters and gradient of areas of the planet, for example, the young craters appear light blue or white. Tan areas show plains formed by the eruption of highly fluid lavas.

The colours captured by Nasa's Messenger spacecraft are not the actual colours of the planet, as the camera differentiated between different wavelengths of light which are reflected by the sun to determine what that part of the surface is made of.